Try To Avoid These 20 Less Healthy Items From The Grocery Store (Keep These Items Off Your List)
The wide variety of options and packaging at the grocery store can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when you're looking for the healthiest food choices. The United States Department of Agriculture found that almost 60 percent of Americans purchase 'junk food' every week that does not offer proper nutrition. This is because many everyday items are filled with too much sugar, salt, carbohydrates, and other unhealthy additives that put your health at risk.
If you're aiming to only bring the healthiest foods home, these are the items that you want to avoid and the reasons to stay away from them. Read on to learn more!
Juice Has An Alarming Amount Of Sugar
Juice may seem healthy because most varieties are said to contain rich amounts of fruits and vegetables. Although some juices contain antioxidants and vitamin C, the vast majority are full of liquid sugar.A peer-reviewed journal called The Lancet found that fruit juice usually contains as much sugar as sodas such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
Some healthier alternatives are juices made purely of low-sugar fruits including blueberry and pomegranate. An even healthier alternative is to make your own juice using natural ingredients, avoiding the added preservatives and sugar.
Energy Bars Are Filled With Extra Calories
A top reason for buying protein or energy bars at the grocery store is that they are widely considered to be a convenient nutritional snack and a healthier alternative to candy bars. While there are nutritious energy bar options available, this isn't the case for all of them.
Many energy bars contain high amounts of fat and sugar that have just as many calories as a regular candy bar. Instead, grab a piece of fruit with lots of vitamins, a probiotic yogurt, or a small handful of nuts to satisfy your snack-time hunger.
Why Gluten-Free Junk Food Isn't A Better Alternative
Those who suffer from celiac disease or have a gluten intolerance turn to the gluten-free label when making food purchases at the grocery store. There are quite a few gluten-free alternatives that are both delicious and nutritious, but there are several that can mislead the consumer into believing they're healthy.
Gluten-free snack foods such as chips, cookies, and candy are often loaded with massive amounts of sugar, salt, refined grains, and saturated fat to give the food flavor. These ingredients can rapidly spike blood sugar. Choosing a gluten-free snack that is completely whole grain is a healthier choice.
What's Really Inside Frozen Pizza
In order to keep frozen meals such as pizzas fresh for a long time, they are made with large amounts of chemicals and preservatives. Specifically, frozen pizzas are chalked full of calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, and sugar. These frozen pizzas are mass-produced in factories and aren't always made with the healthiest ingredients.
If you insist on buying a frozen pizza there are healthier options available, including cauliflower and keto crusts. Making dough at home is relatively simple, which can be topped with fresh vegetables and other low-calorie, high-fiber alternatives.
Many Blueberry Flavored Items Don't Have Real Blueberries
Grocery store aisles are usually stocked with numerous items that are said to be "blueberry flavored," but a large amount of those items don't contain any blueberries at all. Products such as breakfast cereals, muffins, granola bars, and sauces may claim to be flavored with blueberries, but it's actually an artificial flavoring.
A healthier alternative to satisfy your blueberry craving is to purchase whole blueberries and incorporate them into the food of your choosing. Blueberries are filled with antioxidants and many essential vitamins that make them part of a balanced diet.
French Fries And Potato Chips Are Carcinogenic
Healthline found that whole, white potatoes are actually very healthy, but the majority of the potato byproducts lack many nutrients. Products such as french fries and potato chips are extremely high in calories, salt, and fat and containcarcinogenic substances. PubMed Central completed several studies concluding that the byproducts directly contribute to weight gain.
The best way to eat white potatoes is to boil them in water, not fried in oil. When potatoes are fried, baked, or roasted it releases harmful chemicals that can cause cancer. Some snacks that can relieve the crunch cravings are baby carrots, nuts, or jícama.
Boxed Mac And Cheese Is A Nutritional Disaster
Mac and cheese is usually considered to be a top meal choice for kids, but a wide variety of boxed versions are significantly unhealthy.
Boxed mac and cheese also lacks many nutritional elements that make up a balanced diet. There is virtually no fiber and many contain numerous additives and chemicals that have been banned in other countries around the world.
Don't Go Overboard On The Salad Dressing
Consuming salads is a great way to maintain a balanced diet, but the tricky part comes down to the salad dressing. Bottled salad dressing can have a lot of sodium, sugar, and saturated fat. They also don't stay true to serving size, causing people to consume at least a tablespoon more than recommended.
While limiting your intake of salad dressing can be difficult, nutrition experts say to try and skip it altogether. They suggest topping a salad with some avocado, poached eggs, or marinated vegetables to give it extra flavor.
Toaster Pastries Have No Nutritional Value
Initially geared towards children, toaster pastries have become popular for breakfast, a snack, or a dessert option. Unfortunately, there is nothing nutritious about them. They have no protein and are made up of sugar, fat, food coloring, palm oil, and high fructose corn syrup.
Many toaster snacks are fruit-flavored but don't contain actual fruit. It may be deceiving that they don't usually have over 200 calories, but the added sugars and refined flour are not healthy in any amount. Even worse, packaged toaster pastries have little to no nutritional value.
Sweetened Cereals Aren't Part Of A Balanced Breakfast
Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, but for many people, it isn't full of nutritious ingredients. There are some cereal options that make for a healthy breakfast choice, containing natural ingredients and low sugar. However, that's not the case for most cereal brands.
The majority of breakfast cereals are unhealthy because they have alarming amounts of added sugar, preservatives, additives, and more. Cereals such as Reese's Puffs, Cocoa Pebbles, and Golden Grahams are prevalent on the cereal aisle but are filled with tons of calories, sodium, and artificial colors that can spike blood sugar and possibly lead to serious illnesses.
White Bread Can Be Detrimental To Your Blood Sugar
There's quite a big difference between store-bought and homemade bread. Most homemade bread only contains simple ingredients, but plenty of brands sold at the grocery store contain at least 20 different ingredients and additives. One of the worst ingredients found in store-bought bread is refined wheat.
White bread is very low in fiber and essential nutrients and can cause rapid spikes in blood sugar. It may be the best choice to make your own bread, but if that's not possible Ezekiel or whole-grain bread are better options. These contain far fewer carbohydrates and preservatives.
Noodle Soup Kits Are One Of The Worst Meal Options
Noodle soup kits are often grouped with young college kids because they are very cheap and quick to make. They are also one of the unhealthiest items to purchase at the grocery store. There is absolutely no nutritional value to them and many brands contain harmful chemicals and preservatives.
One such preservative is called tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), which is a byproduct from the petroleum industry. Other destructive ingredients include high amounts of sodium, tons of empty calories, and saturated fat. The sauce packet that melts into the noodles can also clog arteries.
Which Kind Of Ice Cream Is The Best?
Ice cream can be a nice treat on a hot day, but a lot of varieties and brands lack nutritional ingredients. Ice cream usually has a ton of sugar and since it's a dairy product, it's also high in calories. Even vegan ice cream made with coconut milk can be higher in saturated fat and sugar than dairy ice cream.
Those who want to avoid dairy can choose soy, almond, coconut, or cashew milk ice cream, but dairy ice cream is actually a bit healthier than non-dairy.
Get Rid Of This Ingredient In Your Canned Fruit
Sometimes buying pre-packaged fruit can be a time-saving tactic, but there are certain varieties to avoid. Any canned or packaged fruit that comes with liquid syrup should not be consumed. These heavy syrups are loaded with unnecessary sugars and artificial sweeteners, which can be harmful to the gastrointestinal system.
Instead, try purchasing fresh or frozen fruit. If you need to get canned fruit, make sure to only buy the ones that say they're packed in "100 percent juice."
White Rice = Empty Calories
White rice is a refined grain that can easily lead to weight gain. It also has a high glycemic index, which quickly converts carbohydrates to sugar in the bloodstream.
This food is also highly processed and lacks many essential vitamins and minerals that can be found in brown rice. Eating white rice regularly can also increase blood pressure, cause cholesterol levels to spike, and increase the risk of heart disease.
Fruit Snacks Aren't Good For You
Most varieties of fruit snacks will say that they are fat-free, but there are several bad ingredients that some shoppers might miss on the labels. Most gummies have a lot of added sugar and tons of food coloring. Nutritionist Danielle Hamo states that eating fruit snacks "will probably lead to increased hunger."
She goes on to say that they "have no fiber to prevent your blood sugar from spiking and crashing." Similar products such as fruit roll-ups contain high amounts of corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, and a wide variety of artificial colors.
Tomato Sauce Isn't As Healthy As You Thought
It can be convenient to buy a jar of tomato sauce, instead of making the sauce at home. However, making tomato sauce at home is a far healthier option. The Healthy found that popular brands of store-bought tomato sauce have around 12 grams of sugar and 20 percent of the day's recommended sodium intake in just one serving.
Before buying jarred tomato sauce make sure you recognize the ingredients listed because that's where a lot of the hidden sugars and sodium are found.
Don't Overeat A Frozen Pot Pie
Frozen pot pie may seem like a healthy meal because it contains mostly vegetables and meat, but it's actually one of the most unhealthy grocery store purchases. One frozen pot pie usually has around two servings, yet the majority of consumers eat one pot pie per person.
These are usually loaded with saturated fat and sodium and contain far more calories than someone should consume in one meal. The outer pastry and gravy inside the pot pie are what makes it unhealthy, so an alternative can be to cook up just white meat chicken and steamed vegetables.
Packaged Meat Can Make You Very Sick
There are severely high amounts of sodium packed into processed meats. These can include bologna, ham, sausage, turkey, hot dogs, bratwurst, roast beef, bacon, pepperoni, Spam, and more. PubMed Central found that people who regularly consume packaged meats are at a higher risk for serious ailments such as colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, kidney failure, and heart disease.
This doesn't mean that you have to give up meat entirely. The deli counter and local butchers have fresh meat choices that don't contain the unhealthy preservatives and saturated fat that pre-packaged meat does.
Pay Attention To The Ingredients In Popcorn
Popcorn may be high in fiber, but several versions completely slather on unhealthy ingredients. Some varieties contain palm oil, which is a major cause of inflammation. Others put on a heavy candy glaze that is doused with added sugars. Even some popcorn brands that claim to have fewer calories fill their product with heavy fat, oils, cheese, buttermilk, and more.
The best thing to do is avoid any brand that is popped using palm oil and find ones that use either coconut oil or olive oil. Buying kernels and popping them at home either on the stove or in a popcorn popper can be a healthier alternative.
